The blog of Navalny in English

We all have been waiting for the “return of Russian prestige in the international arena” that is being talked about so much on the idiot box.

This is very important, because Russian diplomacy has lagged a bit and didn’t have time to adopt the newest principals and traditions of Russia’s domestic policy, so it hasn’t always spurn the false values imposed by the enemies of Russia, like free elections and human rights.

It has happened at last. Now we have proof that Russian diplomats live and work in full accordance with the methods of their Kremlin bosses.Just yesterday, Foreign minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov proudly claimed: "The attempts to adapt the OSCE area to match the interests of one group of countries through aggressive imposition of neo-liberal interpretations of human rights are harmful to the entire European civilization, - Lavrov says - Arrogant disregard of traditional values and moral standards common for all nations, as well as the ones specific to each nation is unacceptable."So let’s get down to the review of moral standards of the Russian Foreign Ministry employees approved by Sergey Lavrov.

You have probably heard the news and read some articles about it. However, the investigation department of our Foundation for Fighting Corruption has studied the accusation documents and wants to share some details with you.

Apple, Tiffany and forged income documents – those are the moral standards and traditional values of the Russian diplomats in the USA.

In brief, the fraud scheme is simple: Russian diplomatic mission issued official documents to its employees with false information about their salaries, so they could successfully apply for the Medicaid health care benefits meant for the low income families.And then they would receive the insurance money and spend it with no worries about the fact that their credit cards spending and the documents that they turn in to the other USA bodies prove that they do not belong to the category of “low-income families”.And this is exactly how they were busted.P. 74 of the charges. Attaché Spirin and his wife.

They gave birth to two children in the USA.They misrepresented their annual income as $29K, while their application for a credit card shows $100K.They received $37K from Medicaid. When receiving the benefits, they shopped for$3500 in the APPLE STORE$1600 at TIFFANY & CO,and in other swanky stores for the total of $35,700.

P. 58. Sagura and Lazareva.Sagura was employed as Third Secretary at the Consulate.He falsely stated his annual income for 2007 as $21K and received $19K from Medicaid.While getting the benefits, they used to rent limos and take helicopter charter flights.And of course $8000 TIFFANY & CO.

P. 50 Korneev and Korneeva.Mikhail Korneev, who signed most of the forged documents .He was employed as a Council at the Mission.In the application for medical care benefits they falsely stated that his income was $3200, when in truth it was about $8000 a month.While getting the Medicaid benefits, a little over $3K, he and his wife bought$1800 fur coat$3000 luxury cruise (October 2009)$2000 luxury cruise to the Caribbean (May 2011)+ $2000 jewelry$4000 another luxury cruise (December 2011)and of course $4300 APPLE STORE.

P.46 Solomatin and Babaeva.He also was employed as a Third Secretary.He received $31000 from Medicaid.Purchases during the time of receiving Medicaid benefits:$10,000 Prada, Bloomingdale’s$8400 APPLE STORE$1300 TIFFANY

Now for some of those who still work at the Mission:

P.18. Kuleshov Mikhail ( 2nd Secretary) and Anna.These two pretended to be siblings living separately and so Anna being a single mother with two children and no income at all.They received $21K from Medicaid.In the meantime they purchased:$4500 SWAROVSKI$16,500 LORD&TAYLOR$3500 APPLE STORE

What grabs the attention is the fact that Russian diplomats were paid in cash until June 2011.It looks so much like a second-rate spy thriller, with a room full of stacks of cash somewhere in a Mission building with an unshaven man wearing earflaps distributing money to diplomats working either for the KGB or the “Russian mafia”.

Don’t take it like I am picking on diplomats for buying Apple and Tiffany products.Let them buy it, and they should be doing it, because it’s a prestigious job and it pays well. We are all for our diplomats wearing good suits and carrying MacBooks with their wives dressed in Tiffany from top to toe.

By the way, salaries at the Mission are not small, and let’s not forget, EVERYTHING the diplomats need is paid for by the Mission. Salary, per diem, phones, transport, apartment, medical treatment, school, kindergarten, - are all-inclusive. On top of that, they are exempt from paying taxes (in UN for sure). Also, according to the document of charges, they all lived in the apartments paid by the Mission. So they really don’t have a lot of expenses.But they still managed to commit massive fraud.

The question is, how far has the chaos and collapse of the systems in the Foreign Ministry, the FSB and SVR gone, if something like this could happen. The Russian Mission to the UN, New York, USA – is the forefront of the diplomatic struggle. The center of intelligence and counterintelligence agencies of all the countries’ striving, and right in the middle of it our diplomats successfully commit massive long-term fraud with 49 people involved.Who would believe that it could happen without the knowledge of the head of the Mission, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the intelligence personnel working at the Mission?Sounds like the cherished dream of CIA recruiters.Also, remember that one of the highest-profile failures of Russian intelligence had to do with a defector from the UN.

Complete degradation.Since the 70s in the USSR, the diplomacy to the “prestigious capitalist countries” has turned into the tool for the employment of the children of nomenclature workers. And now it is also superimposed on the collapse of the Intelligence Service. The head of SVR, Fradkov, has no time to deal with the fact that 49 Mission workers have had charges pressed against them and they can be recruited any moment.

So it was said. Now it will be repeatedly transmitted on the TV until “simple people” believe in it.

And the American influence needs to be fought with only on TV.Didn’t they state in the supporting forged documents for Medicaid that their children are American citizens, even though the rule of citizenship acquired by the right of birth excludes diplomats? They did.Such are the government and diplomatic priorities.